Do Termites Fly? A Complete Guide to Flying Termites

Written and reviewed by the licensed termite team at My Termite Company, serving homeowners throughout Greater Los Angeles.

Yes!, some termites fly, but only for a short window in their life. The flying termites you see are alates, or swarmers, the reproductive members of a colony. They leave the nest on a single mating flight, pair off, shed their wings, and never fly again. Workers and soldiers, the termites actually damaging your wood, never grow wings and never fly at all.

Do Termites Have Wings?

Only one caste in a colony grows wings. Workers and soldiers stay wingless their whole lives, since flight serves no purpose for the jobs they do. Alates grow two pairs of equal-length wings, built for a single flight, then shed them for good once they land and mate.

So the direct answer: a small slice of the colony flies, once, and never again.

What Are Flying Termites?

Flying termites are the reproductive stage of a colony, alates or swarmers. Their bodies run dark brown to black, 1/4 to 3/8 inch long, with a straight, thick waist and straight antennae.

A mature colony produces alates once it has enough workers to spare, typically three to six years after the colony starts. Seeing swarmers means a colony nearby has reached that maturity.

Why Do Flying Termites Suddenly Appear?

A mature colony reads weather conditions as a signal that a new colony would survive. Warm temperature, high humidity, and recent rain combine to trigger a swarm. The colony has been building toward this moment for years, the swarm itself just looks sudden.

Why Swarms Follow Rain

Rain gives a young colony the moisture it needs to survive its first days underground. Warm, wet soil after a storm is exactly what a new colony needs to establish, so termites time their swarms to it deliberately.

In Los Angeles, drywood termites swarm in late summer and fall, while subterranean termites swarm in spring, often within a day or two of warm rain.

Flooding produces a related survival trick: if water overtakes an underground colony, termites don’t flee, they enter a low-oxygen dormant state that can let them survive submerged for over a day. When the water recedes, the colony re-emerges and keeps feeding. Flooding slows termites down far more often than it wipes them out.

When Do Termites Swarm — Day, Night, or Around Lights?

It depends on the species. Western drywood and western subterranean termites, the two most common in Los Angeles,swarm during daylight. Formosan termites, found in rare confirmed pockets across Southern California, swarm at dusk and into the evening and are drawn to porch lights and streetlights.

That light-seeking behavior (called phototaxis) is also why daytime swarms cluster near windows. Turning off unnecessary outdoor lights during swarm season won’t stop an existing colony, but it will cut down on drawing swarmers toward your doors and windows.

Termites generally don’t swarm during rain itself, wings and rainfall don’t mix well for an insect this small. Most swarms launch once the rain stops and the air stays warm and humid.

Do Termites Fly Inside a House?

If you see swarmers inside your home, it almost always means the colony is inside too,  not trying to get in from outside. Alates that emerge from soil outdoors typically swarm outdoors. Alates that emerge from a wall void or a piece of infested wood swarm wherever that colony already lives.

Indoor swarmers are one of the strongest signs of an active infestation.

How Long Do Flying Termites Live?

The flight itself lasts minutes, not hours; a single swarm typically runs 30 to 40 minutes before the termites land and shed their wings. What happens next depends on the individual:

• If a swarmer fails to mate or find soil, it dies within a few hours from dehydration.
• If a pair mates and finds a suitable site, they become a king and queen. A termite queen can live 15 to 25 years or longer under good conditions, laying eggs the entire time.

Most swarmers never get that far, spiders, ants, and lizards eat large numbers of them mid-swarm, and weak flyers get blown off course before they land safely.

Do Flying Termites Eat Wood?

Not in any way that matters. Alates are built for reproduction, not feeding  their mouths and digestion aren’t set up for sustained wood consumption the way worker termites’ are.

What matters isn’t the swarmers themselves, it’s what their presence tells you: a colony of workers is already established somewhere nearby, and those workers are the ones doing real, ongoing damage out of sight.

Why Do Flying Termites Suddenly Die?

Swarmers die fast without three things: soil, moisture, and shelter. One that lands somewhere dry, windowsill, tile floor, or driveway  has no way to survive, and most die of dehydration within a few hours.

That’s why you’ll often find a pile of dead swarmers and shed wings near a window the morning after a swarm. It’s not a sign the problem solved itself, it’s a sign that the batch failed, while a few pairs elsewhere likely succeeded.

Are Flying Termites Dangerous?

Not directly. They don’t bite, sting, spread disease, or chew through walls themselves. The real risk is what they represent: a mature colony  nearby, or already inside your home  that’s been feeding on wood for years to reach this reproductive stage.

The EPA estimates termites cause billions of dollars in property damagehttps://mytermitecompany.com/services/licensed-termite-inspections-los-angeles/ across the U.S. every year. The swarmers themselves are the warning light, not the fire.

Should I Worry If I See Flying Termites?

Yes — enough to get an inspection, even without panicking. Swarmers, especially indoors, mean a colony has already matured to the point of reproducing, which usually takes years of feeding first. Waiting to “see if it happens again” costs nothing but time the colony spends eating. A licensed inspection tells you exactly what you’re dealing with instead of leaving you to guess.

How to Get Rid of Flying Termites

A visible swarm is easy to clean up. An unseen colony is the real problem, and that’s what actually needs solving.

1. Vacuum up swarmers and shed wings. This clears the immediate mess but does nothing to the colony feeding your walls.
2. Turn off unnecessary outdoor lights during swarm season to avoid drawing more swarmers toward doors and windows.
3. Seal obvious entry points — foundation cracks, gaps around utility lines, damaged screens.
4. Get a professional inspection. Nothing sold at a hardware store reaches a colony living inside a wall or under a slab. A trained inspector locates the colony and matches treatment — localized treatment for drywood termites, full treatment for subterranean termites — to the species involved.

What Is a Termite’s Worst Enemy?

Several ant species actively hunt and raid termite colonies, and the two insects wage ongoing territorial battles wherever they overlap. Birds, spiders, lizards, and centipedes eat termites too, especially swarmers caught in the open mid-flight.

None of these natural predators solve an infestation inside a home, though a house doesn’t have enough ants, birds, or lizards patrolling its walls to stop a colony from spreading. For an infestation already inside a structure, a termite’s real worst enemy is a licensed pest control professional trained to find and treat the colony directly.

Termites vs. Flying Ants

Homeowners mix these two up more than any other pest pairing, their swarm seasons overlap.

If the wings match in length and the waist runs straight and thick, you’re looking at a termite. If the front wings run longer than the back and the waist pinches in, it’s an ant — a far smaller concern for your home’s structure.

A Few More Questions Homeowners Ask

Can flying termites start a new colony indoors, or only outside? Either. If a mated pair finds a moisture source and enough wood inside your home, a leaky pipe area, damp framing, they can establish a colony indoors without ever touching soil, especially in the case of drywood termites.

Do all the swarmers from one colony fly at once? Usually yes, in one concentrated event, though a colony may send out more than one swarm in a season if conditions stay favorable.

Can I tell how big the colony is from the size of the swarm? Not reliably. Swarm size reflects the colony’s age and maturity more than a precise population count, and colonies keep members in reserve. Only an inspection can gauge how established or widespread an infestation actually is.

What to Do If You See Flying Termites

A swarm in or near your home isn’t the problem itself,  it’s proof the real problem, a feeding colony, has been there long enough to reach this stage.

My Termite Company inspects homes across Los Angeles, finds the colony behind the swarm, and builds a treatment plan around the species involved.

Call (818) 940-0203 or request a free inspection before this swarm’s colony has another year to spread.